Recent computing trends have resulted in a desire to concentrate computing capability into smaller and smaller spaces. For example, in the client-server computing model, a central server may maintain data and perform certain computing tasks at the request of one or more clients, which may be remotely located and communicate with the server over a network. In a large organization or service provider, a central data center may contain hundreds or thousands of server computers, serving thousands of clients or more.
In order to reduce the cost of operating such data centers, it is desirable to make the server computers as power-efficient and space-efficient as possible. For example, “rack mount” servers may be configured to have a small vertical dimension and include mounting features so that several server computers may be mounted in a standard 19-inch rack. Server computers are now available with a height of one “rack unit”, so that server computers can be spaced as little as 1.75 inches apart in a rack. “Blade servers” may be packed even more tightly, and may share a cabinet, power supplies, cooling, and other sharable computer components, rather than each server computer being a stand-alone machine with its own power supply, cabinet, peripherals, and the like.
This trend of increasing computing density has necessitated commensurate reductions in the sizes of various data storage devices.